IPOH: The Perak Department of Environment (DOE) has given its assurance that the plastic waste brought into the state for recycling as alternative fuel is safe.

Its director, Norazizi Adinan said based on monitoring, the waste obtained from local suppliers all over the country did not contain toxic or hazardous substances.

“Every month we receive (from the company) a list of 40 local suppliers and the list of goods with complete information such as the weight, and all these are being monitored,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after a visit with State Education, Science, Technology and Environment Committee chairman Dr Abdul Aziz Bari to inspect the pile of waste at the site of Resourceco Asia (M) Sdn Bhd in the IGB Industrial Park in Tasek here, today.

Daily Mail Online on May 25 featured a 6-m high mound of waste deep in the Malaysian jungle here comprising food packaging or plastic waste from foreign countries.

Commenting on the international waste, Norazizi said the department is not responsible to ensure all wastes provided by local suppliers were from domestic sources.

“They (suppliers) have other factories and sources, to ensure whether the waste is from local sources or imported is under the purview of Customs Department as well as the Housing and Local Government Ministry,” he said.

Resourceco Asia (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Pavel Cech said the plastic waste at the site would be completely moved to their new warehouse at the plant here by the end of this year.

“The warehouse is still under construction and to provide the zero waste solution to the local industries, we need to store the material somewhere.

“So, with the knowledge of DOE, we have stored them here with their approval,“ he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz said the international media made the report without obtaining an explanation from company earlier.

Resourceco Asia (M) Sdn Bhd obtained between three to 4.5 tonnes of wastes a month from suppliers to be recycled as processed engineered fuel as an alternative fuel to product cement. - Bernama